Steel Driver

Player: 3 – 6

Time: 60 Minutes

Age: 11 Years

An extra Treefrog game for Essen 2008.

A relatively simple train game set in North America and involving shares and building railway lines with a few twists thrown in.

Each player uses their investment cubes to bid for control of companies, (six in all). When you take control of a company you receive one share, which means that only one share per turn can be purchased. The cubes you bid with go into the company and allow it to build track. Each location has a value which determines how much profit you receive for connecting it. After companies have built as much track as they can players are paid the profit that each company they control has made this turn. Profit levels are reset for the following turn. Players get another set of cubes to bid with and then bid again for control of companies.

Cash earned from shares is really victory points, it cannot be used to bid on future shares. As each player receives the same number of investment cubes each turn there is no positive feedback for owning the best shares.

The game lasts five turns. At the end of the game each company will pay out an additional amount of profit to each share held. This level is determined by how many different regions a company is connected to, (it’s a little more involved than that, and coloured cubes are moved around!).

About Steel Driver, Martin Wallace states in the rulebook: “I’ve had it in mind to develop and update the system used in Prairie Railroads to fix some of the rougher elements.

Splendor: Marvel

Player: 2 – 4

Time: 30 Minutes

Age: 10 Years

Bring together a team of super heroes and prevent Thanos from ending the world!
The Infinity Stones are scattered throughout the Multiverse. Use their essence to recruit heroes and villains and gain Infinity Points.

Assemble the Avengers, acquire locations and when ready, claim the Infinity Gauntlet!

Pick your tokens carefully, recruit characters to gain Infinity Points and bonuses. These bonuses help you recruit more powerful heroes and acquire locations… until you gather enough characters, power, and Infinity Points to trigger the endgame!

Even though Splendor Marvel uses Splendor’s core rules and high-quality materials, it has a different color structure, a new endgame trigger, and new victory conditions. You can also gain Infinity Points with the Avengers Assemble tile that can be passed from one player to another several times during the game!

If you are keen on Splendor, learning the rules will be easy, but mastering the game may take you a while.

And if you don’t know Splendor, soon you will enjoy its quick and simple rules and become addicted to this game without even realizing it!

Smartphone Inc.

Player: 1 – 5

Time: 60 – 90 Minutes

Age: 12 Years

In Smartphone Inc., you become a CEO of one of the largest smartphone-producing companies in the time when smartphones were only beginning to conquer the world. Research technologies, develop your factory, build your worldwide office network, and outprice your competitors to become the most profitable and successful smartphone company in the world.

Smartphone Inc. is an economic simulation Eurogame. Over five rounds, players program their decisions about price, production, research, and expansion. The game features a unique mechanism of planning, which combines patching mechanisms with bidding and action selection. Each of the rounds consists of eight simple phases: planning, pricing, production, development, research, expansion, selling, and profits.

In the planning phase, all players simultaneously make decisions for the next year by overlaying (“patching”) their two plan cards and all of their development tiles. The actions they plan on their cards and tiles in this phase will determine what actions they can perform during all of the later phases.

In the pricing phase, players change the price they charge for their smartphones based on their plan. A lower price helps to go earlier and sell more smartphones on the market, but a higher price, while risky, helps players to earn more money.

In production, all players produce smartphones.

In development, players take development tiles, which expand their planning possibilities in future rounds.

In research, players discover new technologies. Each technology not only expands players’ ability to sell smartphones to customers, but also gives them special powers they can use during the game.

In the expansion phase, players open offices in neighbor regions, which allow them to sell in that region and develop their network of offices to more regions in further turns.

In the sale phase, players sell the phones they produced in regions where they have offices. But there is limited space in each region – and if your price is too high, cheaper rivals can block you from selling.

In the profit phase, players get income for their sales. Players gain the sale prices for all of their sold smartphones, and the player who sold the most phones in each region gains a bonus for controlling the accessory market. At the end of this phase all sold smartphones are discarded from the map – and a new round begins.

After five rounds, the richest player wins.

Root

Player: 2 – 4

Time: 60 – 90 Minutes

Age: 10 Years

Root is a game of adventure and war in which 2 to 4 (1 to 6 with the ‘Riverfolk’ expansion) players battle for control of a vast wilderness.

The nefarious Marquise de Cat has seized the great woodland, intent on harvesting its riches. Under her rule, the many creatures of the forest have banded together. This Alliance will seek to strengthen its resources and subvert the rule of Cats. In this effort, the Alliance may enlist the help of the wandering Vagabonds who are able to move through the more dangerous woodland paths. Though some may sympathize with the Alliance’s hopes and dreams, these wanderers are old enough to remember the great birds of prey who once controlled the woods.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the region, the proud, squabbling Eyrie have found a new commander who they hope will lead their faction to resume their ancient birthright. The stage is set for a contest that will decide the fate of the great woodland. It is up to the players to decide which group will ultimately take root.

Root represents the next step in our development of asymmetric design. Like Vast: The Crystal Caverns, each player in Root has unique capabilities and a different victory condition. Now, with the aid of gorgeous, multi-use cards, a truly asymmetric design has never been more accessible.

The Cats play a game of engine building and logistics while attempting to police the vast wilderness. By collecting Wood they are able to produce workshops, lumber mills, and barracks. They win by building new buildings and crafts.

The Eyrie musters their hawks to take back the Woods. They must capture as much territory as possible and build roosts before they collapse back into squabbling.

The Alliance hides in the shadows, recruiting forces and hatching conspiracies. They begin slowly and build towards a dramatic late-game presence–but only if they can manage to keep the other players in check.

Meanwhile, the Vagabond plays all sides of the conflict for their own gain, while hiding a mysterious quest. Explore the board, fight other factions, and work towards achieving your hidden goal.

In Root, players drive the narrative, and the differences between each role create an unparalleled level of interaction and replayability. Leder Games invites you and your family to explore the fantastic world of Root!

Roll Camera!: The Filmmaking Board Game

Player: 1 – 4

Time: 45 – 90 Minutes

Age: 11 Years

You are movie producers in a failing film production company. You have one last chance to make a successful film – otherwise the company will collapse and you’ll never work in this town again! You have to use the resources at your disposal to produce this film on time and under budget, ensure it’s a high enough quality, and make some sense of the resulting story. No time to waste – roll camera!

Roll Camera! is a cooperative or solo dice worker placement game of resource management and a central geometric puzzle representing your shooting arrangement. You throw the custom D6 Crew dice, each face representing a different production department (camera, light, sound, actor, production design, visual effects) and assign them to actions, either on the main board or on your individual player boards. Your player board features a specific head of department (Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Production Designer or The Star) and contains unique action spaces that can be used on your turn.

Place the Crew in specific arrangements matching those on the Shot cards, resolve the constant Problems getting in your way, and hold production meetings to play Idea cards from your hand to help out. Everything costs time and money, and you lose if either one runs out. You must also ensure your film reaches a certain level of Quality in order to win!

At the game’s end, you’ll have a unique sequence of completed Shot cards which you can “premiere” using the story cues — it’s the filmmaking game that results in a “real” movie!

Rockband Manager

Player: 3 – 6

Time: 45 Minutes

Age: 14 Years

Rival Restaurants

Player: 2 – 6

Time: 45 – 60 Minutes

Age: 10 Years

Your goal in Rival Restaurants is to be the first restaurant to get 20 popularity points and be crowned “The Wiener!” Players earn popularity points by buying and trading for ingredients and using them to “cook” (complete) recipes. The more advanced the recipe, the more points it’s worth.

Each day, players move through three phases:

1. MONEY and MOVE: Players collect their income for the day and decide where they want to move. Turn economy is crucial as players are not permitted to move for the rest of the day once their location has been chosen.

2) BUY and BARTER: Players have one minute to buy as much as they want but only from the location they’re in. Players can also barter/trade with anyone in the game, not just the people in their location.

3) COOK and COUNTER. Any player who has all the ingredients required for their recipe can cook it and collect popularity points.

In addition, each player controls a chef equipped with their own “chef power”. Chef powers are asymmetrical and allow players to bend the rules in their favor. The base game of Rival Restaurants has twelve chefs, and additionally, at the beginning of the game, each player must choose a restaurant to play, with each restaurant having a unique level-up structure with rewards for reaching 3, 7, and 12 popularity points. Lastly, players can also choose to buy “action cards”, that is, development cards that are typically for one-time use.

Prêt-à-Porter

Player: 2 – 4

Time: 90 Minutes

Age: 10 Years

Prêt-à-Porter is an economic strategy game set in a world of fashion. Players run clothes companies and fight for dominance during fashion shows. It is – perhaps – one of the most cruel and ruthless of all our games. Money can be a dangerous weapon.

During the game players open new branches and outlets, hire new workers and try to gain new capabilities. New Design Agencies, Brand stores or Preparation rooms are opened, Accountants, Models and Designers are hired, lucrative contracts are signed to allow for short-term profits and expand company’s competencies.

Every single month player’s company gains new capabilities.

Each quarter held fashion shows – each player has to prepare a collection of clothing and has to show it on the show. The public, media, experts estimate collections in four categories and award prizes and diplomas. The more awards (represented by ‘stars’ in the game) will be collected at the show, the more money the players earn for selling their collection!

Will you get award for best Trends? Will you manage to be best in Public Relations and get the Media award? Will you earn more ‘stars’ than your opponent?

If you win ‘stars’, your opponents don’t.
If you win ‘stars’, you earn more money. Your opponents don’t.
If you win ‘stars’, you earn money, you hire new stuff, you get better. Your opponents don’t.

That is why during show you will kill for every single ‘star’. Welcome to the hell…

Power Grid: Factory Manager

Player: 2 – 5

Time: 60 Minutes

Age: 12 Years

Power Grid: Factory Manager is the new stand-alone game in the world of Power Grid. It was released at Spiel ’09 in Essen, Germany.

Each player owns a factory and tries to earn the most money during the game. To be successful, each player must use his workers to buy the best machines and robots at the market and to run the machines most effectively in his factory. Because of increasing energy prices, the players must be careful to check the energy consumption of their factories and to avoid using only energy-consuming machines. Otherwise, their profit will suddenly vanish, the worst fear of a good businessperson.

Power Grid: Factory Manager uses a clever market mechanism for choosing the supply of factory tiles in the market.

Power Grid

Player: 2 – 6

Time: 120 Minutes

Age: 12 Years

Power Grid is the updated release of the Friedemann Friese crayon game Funkenschlag. It removes the crayon aspect from network building in the original edition, while retaining the fluctuating commodities market like Crude: The Oil Game and an auction round intensity reminiscent of The Princes of Florence.

The objective of Power Grid is to supply the most cities with power when someone’s network gains a predetermined size. In this new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities for connection, and then bid against each other to purchase the power plants that they use to power their cities.

However, as plants are purchased, newer, more efficient plants become available, so by merely purchasing, you’re potentially allowing others access to superior equipment.

Additionally, players must acquire the raw materials (coal, oil, garbage, and uranium) needed to power said plants (except for the ‘renewable’ windfarm/ solar plants, which require no fuel), making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximum efficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand your network to get the cheapest routes.

Power Grid FAQ – Please read this before posting a rules question! Many questions are asked over and over in the forums… If you have a question about a specific expansion, please check the rules forum or FAQ for that particular expansion.